Matthew Parks | Parliamentary Coordinator with COSATU 

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has assured workers of efforts to defend their gains amid ongoing coalition talks and efforts to form a new government of national unity. Politics and the reflections of the general elections dominated talks at the NUM’s three-day policy conference that wrapped up in Boksburg east of Johannesburg.

Cosatu will be meeting the ANC’s Central Executive Committee to make its input on the composition of the new government as part of the tripartite alliance. NUM is one of the labour unions affiliated with Cosatu. The tripartite alliance members including Cosatu, SACP and ANC met on Wednesday in Gauteng.

This as workers attending the NUM Policy Conference strengthened their call for policy certainty and the protection of the working class in a new government that will soon be formed. The NUM gathered over 500 union leaders from across the country on a national policy conference that sits every two years in between Congress.

The theme was around the marking of 41 years of unbroken revolutionary struggle for the workers. The union says it is worried about the current political climate as it may threaten gains made over 41 years.

But NUM’s mother body Cosatu has sought to allay fears. The federation has met with the ANC and says it will form part of those who will be drafting a declaration post the formation of a new government.